What's Reformed about Reform Judaism?: Halakhah and Public Embodiment
This article proposes a twist to the traditional halakhah-centered story of what is different about Reform Judaism: I suggest that even though we might describe American Reform Judaism’s distinctiveness as its approach to law – its conviction that Jewish law must be interpreted to fit the lives of J...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2019
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| In: |
Journal of religion & society. Supplement
Year: 2019, Volume: 18, Pages: 90-102 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article proposes a twist to the traditional halakhah-centered story of what is different about Reform Judaism: I suggest that even though we might describe American Reform Judaism’s distinctiveness as its approach to law – its conviction that Jewish law must be interpreted to fit the lives of Jews, and not the other way around – historically, many of its most defining moments have been about public embodiment. This article explores three such moments: the trefa banquet of 1883, conversations about women’s ordination, and a ruling on patrilineal descent. Although these moments were related to Jewish law in the sense that Orthodox Jews thought that each violated halakhah, there were plenty of other violations of halakhah that did not generate such vocal objection from more observant Jews, and so violation of halakhah is not sufficient explanation for why these three became defining flashpoints. I suggest that these moments had more to do with the public presence and visibility of bodies than they did with philosophical principles or liberal theology. |
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| ISSN: | 1941-8450 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion & society. Supplement
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